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Pitch Wars 2017 Mentor Blog Hop!

Sunday, 30 July 2017  |  Posted by Brenda Drake

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Welcome to the mentors’ wishlist blog hop! From today until submission day, use the linkies below to hop to all the mentors’ websites/blogs to read their bios, wishlists, and what categories and genres they want to mentor.

For those unfamiliar with Pitch Wars, it’s a contest where published/agented authors, editors, or interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions on how to make the manuscript shine. The mentee then revises their manuscript for two months under the guidance of their mentor. The mentor also critiques his/her writer’s pitch and query letter to get it ready for the agent round. To do this, the mentors read all their applications and choose the writer they want to mentor and to get ready for the agent round on November 1-7.

Want to find out about the fabulous agents joining us this year? Go to Meet the Agents Part 1 and Meet the Agents Part 2 to find out.

Need instructions? Go to this post here.

Want to donate to support Pitch Wars and get extra applications? Go to this post here.

Surprise! We have a great new hang out for our Pitch Wars community. It’s a forum to have discussions with mentors and other writers, a place to get your worked critiqued by your peers and sometimes mentors, and a place to seek critique partners. So here’s our gift to you for being so awesome, and we hope you find this space useful. Join us today! Cheers!

http://pitchwars.proboards.com/

Also, we’ll be launching the new Pitch Wars website next week! Hope you’ll join us for the fun reveal!

Pitch Wars Live! Some of our Pitch Wars mentors will be chatting live with with the wonderful Nikki Roberti starting July 17 with the final one on August 1. The fun will be happening on the hashtag #PitchWars, and if you miss one, we’ll post the recorded chats here, too.  Make sure to watch and get to know the mentors. Follow the #Pitchwars hashtag during the chats to ask questions for the mentors. Here’s the schedule:

Pitch Wars Live Show

Want a chance to win a mentor? Participate in the Mentor Blog Hop Scavenger Hunt!

We’re so excited to bring back this special game. After all the mentors make their mentee picks, we’re holding a drawing and picking three lucky writers to go through the mentoring process. Only those who enter Pitch Wars can enter the scavenger hunt. This is a random draw. So anything goes! And anyone can win! That’s one writer each from the middle grade, young adult, and adult/new adult pool of submissions. The winning writers will go through two months of revisions. If the winners are able to get their manuscripts and pitches in great shape with the help of his or her mentor, we’ll make room for them in the agent showcase in November. The final manuscripts and pitches will be presented to our anonymous judges to determine if they are ready for the showcase.

How can you enter for this amazing chance? Easy. Or not so easy. You have to go on a scavenger hunt for words that will spell out a famous writer’s quote from his/her story. During the mentor blog hop, search for a word somewhere on each mentor’s post. Gather the letters and fill in the blanks below to reveal the quote and fill in the author and book the quote belongs to. There are two puzzles. For each one you solve, you’ll get an entry into the drawing.

Please don’t share the answer or post it on social media. If we see a tweet or a post or whatever, you’ll be disqualified from the drawing. Thank you!

Blue Puzzle: Find the words in blue font somewhere on the mentors’ blog hop post and fit them into the puzzle below.

_ _ _ _ _  / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _! / _ _ _ _ / _ _  / _ _ _ _ _  / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _! / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _! / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _. / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _. / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _. / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _, / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _. / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _, / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _’_ _ / _ _.

Author: _________________
Book:    _________________

Red Puzzle: Find the words in red font somewhere on the mentors’ blog hop post and fit them into the puzzle below.

_ _ / _ _ _ _ _’_ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _,” / _ _ / _ _ _ _. / “_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _. / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ / _ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _. / _ _ _ _ ‘_ / _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _’_ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _, / _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _, / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _. / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _, / _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _, / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ /_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _. / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _’_ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _, / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _’_ / _ _ / _ _ _ _, / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _’_ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.”

Author: _________________
Book:   _________________

Enter your answers to the puzzle in the form at the bottom of this post.

Meet the teams mentoring the winners of the scavenger hunt drawing …

Middle Grade Scavenger Hunt mentors, C.B. Catalano and Shauna Holyoak 

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Website | Twitter | Instagram

After C. B. Catalano realized she spent more time daydreaming than living in the real world she decided to finally write those dreams down, and is now ready to share them with everyone. C.B. writes MG and YA and is represented by Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media. She can be found wandering around the Pacific Northwest with her 3 kids, husband, and beastly muppet puppies. After moving 21 times over the span of 7 states and 18 years she thinks she may have finally found a place to call home (for now) and aims to explore all that Washington has to offer.

me

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Shauna Holyoak received a master’s degree in English Literature with an emphasis in creative writing from Brigham Young University, but more importantly, frosted sugar cookies and movie popcorn make her heart sing. She was a humor columnist for more than ten years, but quit when it stopped being cool for her children to read about themselves in the paper. Fiction, apparently, is safer. So Shauna writes middle grade and young adult novels which are happily critiqued by her first beta readers–The Offspring. Currently she lives in Idaho Falls with her husband, six of her children and two naughty dogs. And more books than will ever fit in their house.

Young Adult Scavenger Hunt mentor, Laurie Dennison 

Laurie-Dennison

Website | Twitter

Laurie Dennison is a YA writer, freelance editor, and former English teacher. She currently works in desktop publishing and website coordination. Laurie loves to read and write about determined characters with complicated relationships. Her latest manuscript PISTOL CANDY won the 2017 SCBWI Florida Rising Kite Award for YA fiction. She is represented by Danielle Burby at Nelson Literary Agency.

 

 

Adult Scavenger Hunt mentors, Marty Mayberry and Léonie C. Kelsall 

Marty Mayberry(1)

Website | Twitter

Marty Mayberry writes adult and young adult novels, and infuses them with romance. When she’s not dreaming up ways to mess with her character’s lives, she works as an RN/Clinical Documentation Specialist. She has a BA in International Affairs in German and an Associate’s Degree in Nursing. She lives in Maine with her husband, children, three neurotic cats and a Yorkie puppie. She’s a member of YARWA and a PRO member of RWA. Give her a long walk on a powdery beach, an ancient ruin to explore, or a good book, and her life’s complete. Her young adult sci-fi thriller won the ‘15 YARWA’s Rosemary Award for speculative fiction. Her NA Urban Fantasy has finaled in the YARWA’s Rosemary Award in the NA category ’17. She’s represented by Jessica Watterson of the Sandra Dijkstra Agency.

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Twitter

Léonie is a professional counsellor. She writes upmarket adult, new adult, and young adult fiction and is represented by Amanda Barnett of Donaghy Literary Group.

 

 

 

And here are your 2017 mentors…

Please be respectful to our mentors. Ask brief questions, but do not ask for feedback or for them to go to links to read stuff.

For YA mentor Jeanmarie Anaya, her link is busted. 🙁 Kindly GO HERE instead for linky #58.

Your Middle Grade Mentors:

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Your Young Adult and Young Adult/New Adult Mentors:

Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets — Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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Your Adult and New Adult Mentors:

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The best way to say thank you to our mentors is to buy their books! You can find a list of them on this Goodreads list.

We hope to see you August 2 for submission day!

 

You get an entry into the drawing for each puzzle you solve. Enter your answers in this form here:
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11 Comments
IMPORTANT!
We're thrilled at the different ways those in our Pitch Wars community are giving back—and we encourage them to do so. However, please keep in mind that Pitch Wars is not affiliated with any of these various contests, promotions, etc., including those of our mentors and mentees. Promoting any such opportunities via our social media channels doesn't imply endorsement or affiliation. We encourage you to do your research before participating.

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